Columns

2007.06.27 The Eight Big Things to have

I read some articles recently about children in China. One article said they were addicted to the internet. Another said the addiction was to cell phones.

I suppose if I dug a little deeper, I’d find something else: cigarettes, Gobstoppers, who knows.

The topic of what Chinese children want reminded me an old By the Way column that I read recently when looking at old Observers for the “Through the Decades” review.

Here’s what happened in my house 20 years ago:

Conversation turned to the Orient the other night.

“Do you even know what the Chinese look like?” Colleen asked Ben.

“They’re all covered with beads,” he said.

That’s the problem with living in a small town, claimed his mother. If we lived in the Bronx where she grew up, Ben would know the Chinese are not covered with beads.

Or maybe if he saw some Oriental people on television it would help, but we’re just like 90 percent of the Mainland Chinese people—no TV. It’s number one on the list of “The Eight Big Things” that young people in China want to own.

Maybe you’ve heard about China’s slow return to capitalism. According to Orville Schell, writing in the Whole Earth Review, the billboards that formerly proclaimed quotes from Chairman Mao are now covered with advertising.

“Prestigious Virtue” shoes are a big item as well as cosmetic surgery. “Get an eye job done quickly. We do it while you wait.” The Chinese can now attempt to look more like Westerners without missing a day of work.

There have been more than just a few changes in 20 years, both here and in China.

Ben is on his own with his first job and he’s rapidly recovering from his deprived childhood. Of course he has a television—a big-screen model to make up for all those years of nothing.

He has most of the Big Eight covered, but still no motorcycle. There’s a car and a kayak instead. But the Big Eight is really outdated. As I mentioned earlier, it’s cellphone and internet addiction for China’s kids. Credit cards are on their current list of wants.

Extreme sports, a pair of Nikes, hair coloring, trendy clothes, tattoos—it’s described as a cultural earthquake. And you think parenting is a challenge here.

I read that after the Revolution in 1949, names such as Jianguo (Construct the Nation) and Jianjun (Construct the Army) became popular. During the Korean War, there were a lot of people named Fangmei (Resist America) or Bangchao (Help Korea).

Now youngsters are looking west. It’s very easy to change a name in China, so you run across Magic Johnson Ye (the former Ye Chongguang). He generally goes by Johnson.